[News] Ken Holland is the new GM and POHO of the Edmonton Oilers

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Personally I think they would have been better off hiring Hunter or even Mike Gillis. Seems like just too much of a post apex hire and not really a lot different than bringing in an old veteran player at the end of his career because of past success. I can't imagine there's a great record of once successful older coaches and GM's ever replicating past success in new organizations in professional sports.

Can’t think of many...

Tom Coughlin for coaches.

The GM one is tricky, none come to mind for me. Maybe Jim Rutherford?

[Resolute 14]

Holland is definitely better than what they had, but the only thing he's really shown in the cap era is that he can sign middling players to overvalued contracts, and that he can trade decent players for picks. He won't have the Red Wings' scouting department that made his career early in his tenure, and he'll still have six other wannabe GMs talking in his ear.

The latter part is the key. As long as the likes of Lowe, MacTavish, Nicholson, and even Gretzky are employed there, the Oilers are going to remain a mess.

[Split98]

Not the guy I thought they'd bring in to fix a major cap problem, but miles better than hiring Gretzky as another puppet. Will be interesting to see how 'full' this autonomy is, and how quickly it evaporates as things go sour.

And they will go sour. They sell this team as something great, and so they're going to be underachieving no matter what Holland can do this year. They'll need to give him rope

Much like with Chia, we're going to hear a lot about his resume going into the season. I forecast, much like Chia, his resume will be rolled out to roast him in a year or 2.

[jmac98]

Holland, like any GM who would have otherwise walked into Edmonton, is completely handcuffed. It's going to be even worse for him because he's a high profile name so the expectation will be even greater amidst ignoring the fact he's basically standing in a closet with walls directly in front of him at every side, unable to manuever.

He will in all likelihood do a commendable job, but will have to untangle everything before he's able to begin actually implementing his own direction. And by the time that all comes to fruition he'll likely be run out of town with the next GM after him gaining accolades for fixing the franchise all the while ignoring the fact Holland's tenure was spent clearing the way for the flexibility of his predecessor to do so.

[Firebot]

Eh, not scared of the signing. Chiarelli was seen as the Oilers saviour and the hiring was seen as awful news for Flames fans. (heck even Bob Nicholson was). Oilers will still Oilers as long as the OBC are employed.

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showth...iarelli+oilers

Devestating news. The last 9 years we're the best year of my life. Thank you Lowe for your service and dedication to the Oilers. Many fond memories exist because of you. I can't wait for everyone to start posting their favourite Lowe moments so we can re-live the memories.

A big F U to the Bruins for firing Chiarelli and making this possible. An even bigger F U to the league for allowing the Oilers to obtain 4/6 first overall picks thus being able to select Connor Mcdavid. He will be the biggest reason for the Oilers cleaning house and their potential turnaround.

Dark time are ahead. Be prepared for an onslaught of Oiler fans proclaiming McDavid and having new management will bring them the cup.

Horrible news

The nightmare scenario, honestly.

Draft the next generational talent and sweep out the dough heads that got them there.

Get ready for a much, much better Edmonton team over the next five years.

Let's not give up just yet. Mactavish is still there to do stupid things.

Also as much as I hate the Oilers getting McDavid and Chiarelli, it's comforting there's at least one human being in that organization that can help McDavid grown as a player and surround him with good teammates.

Gotta laugh at people who don't think Chiarelli is a good GM. There's a reason the guy was out of work for less than a week. If the Oilers hadn't picked him up, one of the other teams looking for a GM this off-season would have. In fact, I think if the Oilers didn't win the lottery, Chiarelli wouldn't have taken the job.

As much as the McDavid lottery win for the Pilers was bad for Calgary, Chiarelli coming in and cleaning house and building a solid hockey ops group is worse. They have a bunch of assets and if used properly will jump start them into the top half of the western conference.

Not even Ken Holland can save the Oilers. No one can. Chirarelli sure as heck did the opposite.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

"Not even" Ken Holland can save the Oilers? Why "not even"? He's a terrible choice.

You've just had several years of Chiarelli, who had great success about a decade ago and is now a backwards-thinking dinosaur who the game has passed by and who hasn't been able to adjust to changes in the sport and nowadays just makes terrible deals to fill his lineup with borderline replacement players at too high a cost.

Today, you've replaced him with Ken Holland, who had great success about a decade ago and is now a backwards-thinking dinosaur who the game has passed by and who hasn't been able to adjust to changes in the sport and nowadays just makes terrible deals to fill his lineup with borderline replacement players at too high a cost.

How could this be considered a positive step?

[GioforPM]

But the important question remains unanswered. What happens to Keith?

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

But the important question remains unanswered. What happens to Keith?

Vancouver....

[dobbles]

I think Holland is the perfect candidate to keep Edmonton no good. He has the legitimacy of multiple cups and that past Red Wings dominance that will allow him to stick around a while. And he has the incompetence to make sure no winning goes in while he is there.

That man single handedly motivated me to stop following the Red Wings. He was a total train wreck of a GM and drove the team into the ground. I can't think of any trades he 'won' in the last 10 years. (dumping Tatar got good value back so maybe that one depending on how the picks actually turn out) And as mentioned already, he signed so many bad deals that has caused the team to tank these last few years: Helm, Abdelkader, Ericsson, etc. The Wings seemed to have lost their ability to find diamonds in the rough and develop those guys. He has a strange obsession with older past their prime players that he will sign to deals way longer than he should.

All in all, I think this is great news for you guys!

[neo45]

Holland is terrible with cap space. No one rewards middling veterans more than him

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by neo45

Holland is terrible with cap space. No one rewards middling veterans more than him

Lucky for him he has zero cap space in Edmonton.

[Split98]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

But the important question remains unanswered. What happens to Keith?

Lol, TSN was yapping about how he isn't a part of the OBC and got where he is his own

So by that 'reporting', I think he's going to be just fine anywhere else in the league

[Hangman]

Once again Edmonton throws the numerous candidate interview process out the window. They made an attempt just to show they could do it. But when it came right down to it they caved, Holland came available and all else went out the window. Back to yes sir we've got our man.

The more things change the more they stay the same...E=NG

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Split98

Lol, TSN was yapping about how he isn't a part of the OBC and got where he is his own

So by that 'reporting', I think he's going to be just fine anywhere else in the league

lol.

[Robbob]

I think they had to go with Holland as they needed someone with a big enough presence who can stand up to the OBC. You bring in some of the other candidates and it probably wouldn't take long before the stank of the OBC took over. I think the thought process, if Holland is all in and not GMing with one foot in retirement, is he will be able to do it his way. Which could be good or bad, but really can't be any worse than what has been the status quo up there. The biggest win for that franchise is if he can successfully bring his guys and replace the old guard, so the next GM has a better organizational foundation.

It only took a couple decades, if he can manage to get that accomplished.

[cannon7]

can only assume Holland negotiated full autonomy. Otherwise this makes little sense for him.

[Hanna Sniper]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Personally I think they would have been better off hiring Hunter or even Mike Gillis. Seems like just too much of a post apex hire and not really a lot different than bringing in an old veteran player at the end of his career because of past success. I can't imagine there's a great record of once successful older coaches and GM's ever replicating past success in new organizations in professional sports.

Lou Lamoriello?

[flames_fan_down_under]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Personally I think they would have been better off hiring Hunter or even Mike Gillis. Seems like just too much of a post apex hire and not really a lot different than bringing in an old veteran player at the end of his career because of past success. I can't imagine there's a great record of once successful older coaches and GM's ever replicating past success in new organizations in professional sports.

Depends what you consider “success”? Tortorella has certainly been able to consistently push his teams into the playoffs and wins a round here and there. Barry Trotz as well. Lou Lamiorello seems to have a knack of bringing a measure of success to the teams he is managing. Scotty Bowman is of course the only real solid example winning multiple cups with multiple teams.

Anyways I think it’s a funny hire but also very on brand for the Oilers. Someone with instant name recognition but not a lot of recent success. Kind of like hiring Phil Jackson.

[FlamesFanTrev]

Originally Posted by cannon7

can only assume Holland negotiated full autonomy. Otherwise this makes little sense for him.

I can think of 25 million reasons this makes sense to a 63 year old.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Hanna Sniper

Lou Lamoriello?

That is exactly what I think they want to replicate. They need someone like that who can come in and do it their way.